314 HARMOTHOE IMBRICATA. 



dorsum. Dorsal bristles strong, with well-marked spinous rows and a smooth portion at 

 the tip. Ventral bristles with simple hooked tips, superiorly and inferiority; rest with a 

 well-marked secondary process. Segmental papilla long. Papillse of proboscis f. 

 Pre-eastric casca long- and slender. 



1. Harmothoe imbrioata, i., 1767. Plate XXVI, fig. 3. 



Specific Characters.— Body elongate-ovate, narrowing more distinctly posteriorly 

 than anteriorly. Head somewhat ovate, with the median furrow in front, and terminating 

 on each side in a blunt peak. The posterior pair of eyes are of moderate size, dorsal in 

 position, and are alone visible from above. The anterior pair lie under the peaks in 

 front, are somewhat larger, and look outward and forward. A trace of a cuticular lens 

 is occasionally seen in these. Tentacle of moderate length, arising from an enlarged dark- 

 coloured base (ceratophore) ; the proximal part of the column (ceratostyle) brownish with 

 a dark belt below the pale enlarged region, to which the filiform tip is attached. A few 

 rather short clavate cilia occur on its surface, the filiform tip being smooth. The lateral 

 tentacles are beneath the former, and are about half their length, with a very slight 

 swelling below the filiform tip. They have proportionally more numerous clavate cilia 

 than the median tentacle. The tentacular and dorsal cirri agree with the latter in 

 outline, and have a considerable number of clavate cilia. Palpi elongated and tapering, 

 with rows of somewhat truncate clavate papillse. Ventral cirrus of moderate length, 

 with a few short clavate cilia. Segmental (nephridial) papilla comparatively long. 

 Scales fifteen pairs, and, with the exception of the rounded first pair, ovate-reniform 

 or obliquely ovate. Though smooth to the naked eye, they are minutely spinous 

 under the microscope, and the outer margin has somewhat short cilia. Only in large 

 specimens is there a row of brownish subglobular papilla within the posterior margin. 

 Dorsal bristles strong, with rather distinct spinous rows, and a well-marked smooth 

 region at the tip. Ventral bristles with an elongated spinous region superiorly, a short 

 spinous region inferiorly, and a simple smooth tip with a hook. All the rest have a well- 

 marked secondary process beneath the hook. 



Habitat. — Distributed between tide-marks and the adjacent region everywhere round 

 the shores of Britain, from Shetland to the southern coast of England, but it is com- 

 paratively rare in the Channel Islands (Guernsey), where its place is occupied by 

 Lagisca floccosa. It extends also to the depth of 75 to 96 fathoms (' Porcupine' 

 Expedition, 1869) and to 125 fathoms off the west coast of Ireland. It ranges to 

 Spitzbergen, Greenland, Iceland and Scandinavia, to the Adriatic and Mediterranean, 

 as well as to other European shores, and is also found in America (Verrill) from 

 Cape Cod to the St. Lawrence. According to Marenzeller it extends to Japan, and 

 Grube records it from northern and eastern Siberia, and from Sitcha and the Sea of 

 Okhotsk, and various other parts of the Arctic Sea. 



It is common in the stomach of cod and haddock (E. M.). It has also been found 

 in the tube of Terebella nebulosa, Bressay Sound, and beside Poly cirrus in an old shell 

 in the same region. 



Length. — On each side of 1J inches, and reaching 2. 



